When Richard Hepke and his wife Lisa were door-knocked in 2014 by a company offering free cavity wall insulation as part of a Government scheme, it seemed a no-brainer.
“This insulation company told us we could have our cavity walls insulated for free and that it would save us a lot of money on heating bills,” Mr Hepke said.
“They also pushed the environmental aspect of it and told us the less we burned, the more we’d be helping the environment. We thought: ‘What’s not to like?’ It’s free and it is a Government scheme, so it must be right.”
Mr Hepke, 58, who lives in an end-of-terrace house in Burnley, Lancashire, said that at first, the insulation worked. “We live in a Victorian terrace and they are big, stone built houses, which are very cold.
“That first winter after having the cavity walls done, we did not have the heating on as much – it seemed to have done the job.”
However, the benefits proved short-lived as Mr Hepke has turned out to be among tens of thousands of households left with faulty insulation as a result of the Government’s flagship energy efficiency scheme.
It has left his home blighted with damp and mould.
Richard Hepke’s home was plagued with damp and mouldThe National Audit Office this week found that 98 per cent of homes with external wall insulation installed under the £4bn Energy Company Obligation scheme – introduced in 2013 under the coalition government – require work to correct major issues, and nearly a third of those with internal wall insulation also need repairs.
The report estimated that between 22,000 and 23,000 homes with external wall insulation and up to 13,000 with internal insulation will need remedial work.
For Mr Hepke, a father-of-three, issues with damp and mould became more apparent over two to three years following the work.
“I put it down to condensation at first as I am an avid fish breeder and have several tropical fish tanks dotted around the house,” Mr Hepke told The i Paper.
“The wallpaper was starting to discolour and we had a couple of bits of mould. We wiped it off and got some dehumidifiers.
“But then it started getting a lot worse and the paper started peeling off and the plaster began dropping off behind the wallpaper. We would be asleep at night and hear the plaster dropping off behind the wallpaper.”
Some of the mould that started affecting Richard Hepke’s homeA survey of Mr Hepke’s home found three walls inside his home affected by poor insulation, with an estimated that remedial works would cost £120,000.
“My house is probably only worth £120,000, so it effectively means I am living in a house that is worthless,” he said.
square ENERGY 98% of homes that used government insulation scheme need mould repairs
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Mr Hepke was told that the cavity wall insulation should never have been installed in his home.
“The cavity wall insulation is only supposed to be put in brick-built houses,” he said. “With a brick-built house, you have one inner skin of brick, then a cavity, and then another skin of brick, so there are two smooth surfaces.
“But our property has one skin of brick and one skin of natural stone. The skin of natural stone is not smooth, so when they put this insulation in, it creates voids.
“Then when the outside of the wall gets rained on, because stone is porous, the rain gathers in these voids and cavities and that’s what causes the damp and mould.”
Plaster began dropping off behind the wallpaper at Richard Hepke’s homeMr Hepke, a self employed courier, has spent £10,000 rectifying the cosmetic issues so far, but the fix is only temporary.
“The damp and mould will come back at some point as it is still in the structure of the house,” he said.
He sought support from law firm SSB Law, which has now gone bust, in a bid to get redress for the damage.
Richard Hepke has spent £10,000 on a temporary cosmetic fix for the damp and mouldDebra Sofia Magdalene, administrator for the SSB Law Victims Support Group – a network of homeowners affected by failed cavity wall insulation under government-backed retrofit schemes – told The i Paper: “We’re hearing from homeowners across the country who’ve seen their biggest investment become unsellable and unsafe because of failed cavity wall insulation.
“These installations were funded and promoted under government-backed schemes that were meant to make homes warmer and greener.
“Instead, many families are now living with damp, mould and crumbling walls, facing repair bills they can’t afford and health problems they never expected.”
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